Easley says if the Supreme Court agrees, several of the state's 187 death row inmates would be entitled to new post-conviction hearings.

He argues the law is not retroactive and making it so could add years of delays for convicted murderers, including Green, who have been sentenced to death.

"That's just going to add a lot more time to the system already in place. A lot more money, a lot more tax dollars to a guy who has admitted his guilt and has been determined by the court to have had a very fair trial. There's no reason to go forward with anything other than his execution," says Easley.

"It is unfair to say it slows things down," says State SenatorWib Gulleywho authored the amendment.

He says, despite the Green appeal, the law speeds up the process.

"We need this as a safeguard," says Gulley. "The good thing about this amendment that was put into law is that all this will come out at the trial level. And so we are going to stop having things go up on appeal and years later discover we did it wrong and they should go back and do it right. That's why I think it's going to speed things up."